Tesla Motors Inc: Updated Roadster Details Coming Next Week

Tesla Motors will soon release details about updates to its first car, the Roadster, according to Autoblog. On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the Roadster details will come next week, saying there have been several crises which have delayed the announcement.

New Roadster could be a good fit

The Roadster is Tesla Motors’ first car tagged at $100,000 and manufactured from 2008 to 2012, but currently it is not in production and has been replaced by the Model S sedan.

Earlier this year, Musk acknowledged that they would upgrade the Roadster, probably fitting it with a battery that will increase its range from 245 miles to 400 miles on a single charge. On its website, the EV manufacturer is still showcases the convertible, which could be a good fit in the expanding product line-up of Tesla with the Model S as well as the Model X crossover SUV, which is expected to release in late 2015, and the Model 3 sedan, due in 2017.

In June, Musk talked about the update to the Roadster during the annual shareholders’ meeting in June. However, due to issues like the explosion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in August, further information was delayed.

Tesla learns from mistakes

In May, Musk said the Roadster was their first highway-capable vehicle that entered into mass production and the first step in the company’s ambitions. He also said those who categorized the car as being for “techno-geeks” did not accurately describe it.

Musk behaves in line with his perfectionist image, and thus, he did not shy away from accepting the fact that the original Roadster looked good on paper but was a mishmash of parts. In May, while addressing the World Energy Innovation Forum, the Tesla CEO said two basic principles underlying the Roadster are adapting the Lotus Elise Chassis and relying on the AC Propulsion drive-train to be plug and play. Musk accepted that it was not easy to make these two issues work properly.

“We ended up changing most of the damn car,” Musk said that time. “So we thought later, why did we do that?”

However, the lessons learned from the Roadster mismatch story helped Musk and team to come up with the super-car Model S.